Last September, CREDO activists won a historic foreign policy victory when – after years of grassroots organizing – we successfully pulled Congress from the brink of launching another war of choice in the Middle East, paving the way for a historic Iran nuclear deal.

But in recent weeks, right-wing members of Congress – including a handful of hawkish Congressional Democrats – have been attempting to sabotage this historic Iran nuclear deal just as it’s beginning to be implemented.

The deal’s opponents have been floating a number of legislative proposals designed to antagonize and alienate Iran, and derail the Obama administration’s historic diplomatic victory.1Just recently, the House attempted to pass a bill that would prohibit President Obama from implementing sanctions relief, even if Iran fully complied with the terms of the deal.2

If passed in the House, these proposals would head to the Senate, where too many Democratic war hawks previously flirted with opposition to the nuclear deal and chose to saber-rattle instead of engaging in diplomatic efforts to secure peace. That’s why we need to make sure those same Democrats aren’t tempted by this latest bid to thwart the historic deal.

So far, experts have concluded that the nuclear deal is exceeding expectations in how fast Iran is dismantling its nuclear program.3 It’s even been credited with helping to avoid an international incident when Iran detained, and then quickly released, two U.S. Navy patrol boats.4 And last week’s successful prisoner exchange, in which five American detainees were released and allowed to return home to the U.S., was strongly influenced by the diplomacy and easing of tensions stemming from the Iran deal negotiations.

While the deal’s opponents in Congress are doing their best to portray themselves as “serious” about national security and tough on nuclear weapons proliferation, their attempts to blow up the deal would in reality achieve exactly the opposite.

If the Iran nuclear deal were to be blocked as a result of this or any one of the other proposals currently being circulated by war hawks in Congress, the unprecedented constraints on Iran’s nuclear program would completely collapse – making Americans less safe, and putting us on a path to war.

A dead Iran nuclear deal would additionally cripple America’s standing as an international leader on nuclear non-proliferation and diplomacy, and it would unravel the coalition that’s been assembled to hold Iran accountable for its activities.

That’s why we need to keep the pressure on Democrats in the Senate to hold the line and not give in to any proposals that would block this historic deal from being fully implemented and put us on a path to more wars and the increased spread of nuclear weapons.